David Kozma and Vanja Hamidi Isacson selected for residency at Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts

Actor and director David Kozma and playwright and artistic researcher Vanja Hamidi Isacson have been selected as artists-in-residence at Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts in Hammerfest, Norway.

During their residency, Kozma and Hamidi Isacson will work on the multilingual performance TYSTNAD/HILJAISUUS/SILENCE, which aims to make the voices of immigrant and minority language speakers in Finland, Sweden, and Norway heard and to give these languages space in the Nordic context. The aim of the project is to develop a series of multilingual performances and to make linguistic and cultural diversity visible and audible as a valuable skill and asset.

The three-week residency period takes place in September 2024 and marks the second year in a row that Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts, the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute, and the Swedish Cultural Foundation are offering a residency opportunity with an emphasis on bringing minority languages to the theatre stage.

“In our context, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report is a stark reminder of what can happen when you unilaterally insist on only one language. As a cultural institution, we have a responsibility to learn and practice a more inclusive space for expression. We believe that Vanja Hamidi Isacson and David Kozma have valuable expertise and experience in multilingualism and we’re delighted that they want to work at Davvi,” says Director Susanne Næss Nielsen at Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts.

Kozma and Hamidi Isacson were selected through an open call in autumn 2023. Several actors will also be involved in the performance, including actor Luthando Jamda, who will take part in the residency and work with Kozma and Hamidi Isacson in Hammerfest. Jamda has theatre training and professional experience from both South Africa and Sweden. Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts is supporting Jamda’s participation in the residency.

Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts. Photo: Zbigniew Ziggi Wantuch

“We’re delighted that our collaboration with the Swedish Cultural Foundation and Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts is continuing into another year after last year’s first and successful residency collaboration. It’s particularly interesting that the performing artists selected for this year’s residency wish to focus on multilingualism through immigrant and minority languages and explore them in a wider Nordic context,” says Pauliina Gauffin, Director of the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute.

“The Swedish Cultural Foundation is currently funding a number of residencies in Finland and abroad. Starting in autumn 2023, Davvi – Centre for Performing Arts is the home of the first Nordic residency collaboration and also the first in the performing arts. The collaboration was made possible thanks to the Swedish Cultural Foundation’s special fund, the Thelma and Lise Standertskjöld Fund, and this year the actor and director David Kozma and the playwright and artist-researcher Vanja Hamidi Isacson have been selected as artists in residence,” says Åsa Juslin from the Swedish Cultural Foundation.

About the project leaders

David Kozma is a Romanian-Hungarian actor, director, and artistic director of Post Theatre Collective based in Helsinki. He works as a freelancer for television and film productions, theatre, as well as applied theatre, with a particular focused on interculturalism. Kozma is the founder of the R.E.A.D. festival, a reading drama festival held in Helsinki each year since 2014. He has also been working on the development of a new centre for cultural diversity New Theatre Helsinki, and as an arts advisor for Arts Promoation Center Finland.

Vanja Hamidi Isacson is a Swedish-Finnish playwright and artistic researcher with a PhD in Fine Arts in Performative and Media Based Practices from Stockholm University of the Arts (2022). Her artistic research project ‘The potential of multilingualism in dramatic works’ studies the relationship between multilingualism and communicative, dramaturgical, political, and emotional functions through several dramatic works from Hamidi Isacson’s perspective as a playwright. The methods developed through the PhD project will be used and further developed. Hamidi Isacson is currently the visiting researcher at Uniarts Helsinki (2023-).